Martin Burke has grown up surrounded by road haulage, taking over the family business in 2016 from his dad Maurice, who’d set it up in 1988. David Craik reports on progress, loyalty, a new site and rising costs.
[FIRST PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2025 TRANSPORT NEWS]
Martin Burke is not one of those people who is happy to just sit, and watch life go by. His positive, proactive and curious nature has been one of the pillars behind the continued success and growth of Paisley-based MP Burke Transport – set up by dad Maurice back in 1988.
It has led him to grasp new experiences abroad, run a transport firm in his mid-20s, be a technology pioneer and most recently expand into new premises in the Renfrewshire town (see sidebar).
Martin began his transport life helping his dad out after school and at weekends. Eventually he started his own career as an apprentice mechanic with Scania when he was 16. He worked there for four years but finding himself still too young to drive an artic he set off on a new challenge.
“My then girlfriend, now my wife Lisa, and I decided to go over to Amsterdam,” he said. “I worked for MAN there as a mechanic for about four or five months. We just thought it would be an interesting and exciting experience to go out there when we were young.
“It certainly was but I have to say perhaps we were both a wee bit wet behind the ears when it came to some of the things we saw in Amsterdam!”
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
When the couple came back Martin started driving a 7.5 tonner Mercedes Atego for MP Burke Transport until he was 21.
“I then passed my Class 2 and 1 licence without any lessons. I didn’t need them given the experience I already had in yards, “he said. “So, pretty quickly I was driving around the UK for our food and distribution customers. I was also doing a lot of the maintenance work on the fleet at the weekends.”
Martin did that for three years before he ‘started taking over the phone’ from his dad when he was away on holiday. “I pretty much started running the business,” he said.
“After a while I kept on the phone and at the age of about 24, I was doing all the day to day planning and managing. I had done all the CPC and transport management courses, so I was ready.”
Image: Tom Cunningham.
The company continued to grow buying a new depot at Abercorn Street in Paisley in 2010. It was bought off whisky group Chivas Brothers and MP Burke Transport was able to use the warehousing space at the site to begin a new storage element to their business.
“I wanted to grow the business further, but my dad was quite content in remaining the same size. In the end I bought my dad out in 2016, and he retired,” Martin said.
The company then grew to have 60,000sq.ft of warehousing in Abercorn Street, which has been retained following the move to Clark Street this year and another two storage facilities it utilises there.
“In total we are just shy of 250,000sq.ft in Paisley,” he said. “About 40% is for own transport work and the remainder is rented out to customers on long-term deals.”
In terms of the transport work – apart from growing from eight vehicles back in 2016 to 16 now – nothing much has changed since Martin took over control of the business.
The focus is still on food and drink including moving packaging and empty bottles to regional distribution centres, supermarkets and warehouses around the UK.
MP Burke also does contract work for special jobs such as moving motorbikes and equipment into Europe for client Flat Out Euro Track Days. “We go down to Spain or Portugal about two or three times a year and bring the machines back. We can load 50 bikes in each trailer as we have made specific frames for them,” explained Martin.
“They hire the tracks for three days and people go and ride on them. They are big bikes around 1,000cc.”
ON THE ROAD
Occasionally, Martin will do the European runs himself but his days behind the wheel are limited. “There might be one or two new jobs that I will do just to suss them out. That way if any of my drivers ask me for advice at least I know first-hand what they are talking about,” he said.
Martin Burke (image by Tom Cunningham).
MP Burke has 16 drivers at present each kitted out for their work in smart light blue company uniforms. “Company image is important to me,” said Martin.
“I am really quite high up on presentation because first impressions are important. We are representing our customers when we go and make a delivery. You don’t want to see a driver in an old pair of jeans and their t-shirt hanging out!
“The office, the yard, the vehicles. Everything has got to be pristine because if things are untidy – even the little things – that can start to run through a business.”
MP Burke has maintained a core of local drivers which they haven’t needed to replace for some time. “They like it here maybe because we are not on their back all the time,” he said.
“We give them a task to do, and they get on with it. They have been well trained to do the job. If there is an issue phone us and we will deal with it together.”
Customer loyalty is also important to Martin. “I don’t want hundreds of customers. I’d rather have six decent customers instead. Those that aren’t going to drop you like a hat when the next person comes along,” he said.
“We have long-term relationships with our customers. Some have been with us for over 30 years. We’re all still here!”
MOVING HOME
MP Burke moved into new premises on Clark Street in Paisley during the summer. The site used to be owned by one of Scotland’s biggest heavy
Image: Tom Cunningham.
haulage firms McKelvie Transport. “We’d outgrown our premises and needed to expand. It’s a bigger yard with much better access to the motorway and more parking space for every vehicle,” explained Martin Burke.
“It gives the drivers so much more room and is an overall better experience for them. We’ve also got offices there, warehouse space and a purpose-built workshop. It’s got two lanes and a brand-new pit, brake tester and headlight tester. It is a lot more modern than the one lane workshop we had before.”
The facilities are solely for MP Burke trucks. “All the trucks and trailers we do ourselves,” he explained. “We’ve kept the same amount of mechanics. There’s plenty of work on.”
